On the Rhodagain

It’s a 70° in central Ohio at the end of January. So, what are you going to do? Well, you’re going to take down your Christmas lights. But before you do that, you’re heading out for a hike.

For me, that meant that yesterday I checked out a new place for me: Rhododendron Cove.

Rhododendron Cove is another one of those State Nature Preserves that was just opened up for normal public use fairly recently, like Christmas Rocks and Boch Hollow. It sits next to Wahkeena State Nature Preserve, just a bit south of Lancaster (but north of Clear Creek).

I did my usual excessive preparation, using LiDAR data to make myself a topo map, and checking property lines to see just where those lay on the terrain. But this time I really didn’t have much idea of where the trails were. So it would be fun mapping it out.

Also, as usual, I didn’t feel prepared enough. The maps I brought with me ended up not completely covering the trails: turned out that in a few locations they actually left the property (onto Wahkeena property) and then returned. Some day I’ll remember to bring extra mappage, because there are a few other places in which official trails leave parks (the trail on Sugarloaf at Great Seal State Park comes to mind).

As is typical in this part of Ohio, there was a Blackhand sandstone cliff. Here’s what you see as you approach along the entrance trail.

Approaching the Sandstone Cliff

Click for the really big version. That is a composite of three photos stitched together (and you can easily see the stitching at the top 2/3 of the way across).

This is an area with a lot of slump rocks, that is, rocks that have separated from the main chunk and are starting to slide (slump) down the hill. In fact, the entrance to the top of the hill is through one of slump separations.

But first a few words about using a camera timer to take a picture. For my camera, with auto-focus, when I want to get myself in the picture, I have to set that up properly. When you have a bunch of people, that’s easy, because it focuses when I push the button halfway down. As long as I don’t stand in the way, it’ll focus on the group, and then be fine when the shutter clicks.

But when I am alone I have to pre-focus it on where I think I’ll be, and then I have to make sure I turn off auto-focus. So there are opportunities to screw that up.

This is all just an introduction for the following shot. I feel I need to show you the entrance slot, but all I have is this one shot that I screwed up. But it ought to at least give you a feel for the climb to the top.

Heading Up

On the bright side, I’ve never looked better!

Once up top, it was on to exploring and mapping the trail, and looking for rhododendrons. They are evergreens, so they ought to stand out in January.

And here’s what I saw first.

Not Rhododendrons

Those are not rhododendrons; those are Mountain Laurels, which are in the same family as rhododendrons. It looks like these are not too far from putting forth their flowers. (Yes, in January).

Mountain Laurel Getting Ready to Bloom

Rhododendron Cove is actually made up of two lobes of Blackhand sandstone with a little valley or cove between them. (Check out the topo map, which is the last picture in this post.) As I was hiking between the two lobes, I spotted my first rhododendron.

A Lone Rhododendron

Hmmm. Yes, it’s a nice Rhododendron, but hardly worth naming a preserve after.

However, once I made it to the other lobe, there were more, particularly off the north side of the lobe.

A Rhododendron Patch

That is Blue Valley in the distance.

From their placement, it pretty quickly became obvious to me that the mountain laurels were much more on the southern exposures with a lot of sun, and the rhododendrons were on the northern exposures, with little sun. Which might also explain why they were lagging behind the mountain laurel in thinking about blooming.

Not Much Blooming Going On

After doing the trail loop on the north lobe, I headed back, and this time stopped to take a picture of another slump rock.

Major Slumping

I have to say, though, I was wondering a bit why they’d bothered naming the place “Rhododendron Cove”. Yes, there were some, but “some” does not a name make.

However, since I was starting to repeat on a trail I’d already traversed in the other direction, I was having a chance to do a better job looking at scenery. So, right above the entrance path, I took a moment to look over the edge to the north.

Rhododendron Cove

Oh! There they are.

In fact, there are just huge masses of rhododenron in a little cove. As you can see, they are walled off in an area with a small monolith on their north.

The Cove and the Monolith

Here’s a better shot of the monolith, a large chunk of sandstone sitting off by itself and forming the cove. It was really pretty spectacular, made even better by having been discovered at the end of the hike.

The Monolith that Defines the Cove

Let my finish up by showing my map.

LiDAR Topographic Map

You’ll probably want to click on it to get the full-size version. The scale is such that the map is about a half a mile wide. The boundaries of Rhododendron Cove are in red; the boundaries of Wahkeena are in yellow. There is an Orange Trail, and a Blue Trail (both well marked with wooden markers and colored tape). When I used a version of this map, it didn’t have the trails marked on it yet.

You can see where the Orange Trail leaves the parking lot and then ascends the nose of the lobe.

But where’s the monolith? And what’s with that odd digital artifact that is triangular?

Well, that’s something I’ve noticed before about LiDAR. It has problems in some situations. Here is a good explanation for how LiDAR works.

If you’ve looked at LiDAR before, you’ll realize that it doesn’t show houses. Why? Those are removed. Now, I imagine they have some algorithm that looks for something “housy” and then removed is by interpolating from nearby. However, something like the monolith looks like a house, so it got removed (at least in the LiDAR product I have access to).

With all the slump rocks around, I just think the algorithm was having a lot of problem with this area, and that led to the triangular artifact, too.

It’s still cool technology, and almost always useful, but it is also good to know its limitations. And the Hocking Hills area is a bit of a challenge for it. (I’ve also noticed a few problems sometimes showing recess caves, particularly the nearby Kettle Hill Cave.)

All in all, it was a wonderful afternoon hike and exploration, for a total distance of 1.9 miles. (It was kind of short, though, so afterwards I headed over to Alley park for another 2½.)

[H/T: Bob and Deb Platt, over at TrekOhio. I found their blog when they “liked” some of my posts. So, yes, I do sometimes follow those links back, and they are useful! Here is one of their posts on Rhododendron Cove, which includes a nice picture of the entranceway between the slump rocks.]